Mackenzie+Magee's+Linguistic+Dimensions+Study

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The class I selected is unique because it is the only class at my school that contains both male and female students. We are in a media unit currently, and are focusing on the depictions of men and women in the media. As a Do Now activity, I asked the students to record what it means to be feminine and masculine. Below are several responses from male students in the class (as written by the students): =====

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This data revealed some very fascinating assumptions my students are making about gender. Both male and female students associated objects such as makeup and skirts with women, but did not associate many objects with men. Female students were more likely to identify negative qualities in men, such as “crazy” and “violent,” while male students were more likely to identify negative qualities with women such as “bi-polar.” Some of the qualities listed were unclear, such as “pretty and so-so” for the feminine column (written by male students). Many of the responses by both male and female students were fairly reflective of traditional gender stereotypes, such as “cooking” for women and “jobs” for men. These responses, however, were also troubling to me, as I hope that my female students know (or learn) that they can have jobs too. =====

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The language that my students used to describe the masculine and feminine seems to be tied to “Discourse,” because it encompasses what makes a person a specific type of gender in their eyes: their behaviors, their appearance, and their actions. =====

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Comparing the topics of conversation for male and female students, I found that there are many common threads. Both groups use similar slang such as kyte and dot, and both frequently discuss turning it up in class. Both are also very interested in the opposite sex, which makes sense not only because they are teenagers but also because they are currently incarcerated, and only see the opposite gender in school. The boys typically discuss bodily functions more frequently than the girls (and often stand up in class and move to a corner in order to fart), while the girls discuss celebrities and each other more. =====

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The topics of conversation my students focus on are tied to both discourse and Discourse. The specific language choices both gender groups use such as “kytes” and “dots” are unique to my students’ social groups, which for all of them are excluded to teens that are incarcerated for the duration of their stay at my school. I would call these choices discourse because they reflect language as it is used in a particular place and time. The topics that are unique to a gender, such as “farting” for boys, seem to suit Discourse because it again reflects what characterizes what it means to be a boy at my school. This could also be considered discourse, however, because it still reflects what it means to be a boy at a specific place and time. =====

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Though students are not required (or advised) to discuss their court cases with teachers, some of them do. Because I work at a non-secure facility, most of my students are incarcerated for non-violent crimes such as vandalism, jumping the turnstile at subway stations, or underage drinking. Some of the girls are incarcerated for prostitution. Many of them have been arrested more than once, and several are contained not because they committed a crime, but because their parents cannot provide for them. Many of my students previously lived with grandparents, aunts and uncles, and a large amount of them are associated with gangs. The biggest gang affiliation at my school is the Bloods, and many of my students represent the Bloods by drawing a five pointed star on desks or worksheets, and by wearing or discussing the color red. Many students refuse to be referred by anything but their gang name, and even write this name on their papers. This reflects discourse at my school site because it reveals how individuals who belong to a specific gang interact and communicate with each other. Handshakes associated with gangs are also common practices at my school. Some of my students have witnessed the deaths of their family members or friends. =====

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Most of my students naturally write in complete sentences, even when they are asked to do a free-write. Thus, fragments are not a problem I typically see. My students are also fairly skilled at using quotation marks correctly, and some have mastered introducing a quote correctly as well. For example, one student wrote: “She’s sensitive because in the story it states, ‘I wish I was invisible.’” This student knew to keep the period inside the quotation marks and to include a comma before introducing the quote. =====

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One common error I see in my students’ writing is run-on sentences. Many of my students do not use punctuation at all, while others overuse conjunctions such as “and.” Here is an example of the former: “The person I know her name is Mommy she short pretty and smart and a loveing person to everybody we love playing Games with me she looks like a mother in my eyes But have a smile thats Lights up the Room But she not hear with me no more.” The student’s use of capitals sometimes indicates a point where she might have put a period or a comma (where But is, for example), but often the capitalization seems random. This student needs help with both capitalization and punctuation. To compare, here is an example of student work that overuses conjunctions: “When I was a child I remember I whent to a carnival and I saw a clown and I ran to my mom because I was scared of clowns. Now im different because I’ve seen multiple clowns and I don’t get scared.” This student seems to understand the basic function of punctuation fairly well, but would benefit from learning how to decide between a period and a comma. =====

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Some of my students do not include commas in a series, such as this student who wrote: “I was little cute and adorable.” Other students, such as the one who wrote about the carnival, include only conjunctions in between items in a series instead of commas. In addition, many students do not add a comma after an introductory element. This most often occurs when they are informing the reader of a time or place, like this student who wrote, “When I was a child I was a good kid perfect attendance, no fights, no arguments.” This student did not add a comma after the “when” clause, and also did not use a colon after “kid” to explain how he was a good kid. Though commas seem to be what my students struggle with the most, colons, particularly the absence of them, is also a problem. =====

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Another grammar rule my students struggle with is subject-verb agreement. Here is an example from one of my students: “Rachel is a nervous person in the passage it indicate she a shy person.” This student drops the verb for “she” and does not add an “s” to “indicate.” My students do not seem to struggle with tenses, but most of them are not writing sentences that are complex enough to require a command of tense shifts. I would like to see more of my students attempt complex sentence structures, but first we need to master simple sentence structures, including proper use of commas and punctuation. =====

Based on my students writing, the five concepts I will focus on teaching are:

 * 1) ===== 1. Run-on sentences =====
 * 2) ===== 2. Including commas after an introductory element =====
 * 3) ===== 3. Including commas in a series =====
 * 4) ===== 4. Subject-verb agreement =====
 * 5) ===== 5. colons =====

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Do Now: Describe your best friend **in at least 5 sentences**. Tell me every detail about this person you can think of: what they look like, what they like to do, what you like to do together, what you like about him/her, etc. =====


 * 1) ===== 1. Students complete Do Now (5 min) =====


 * 1) ===== 2. Students share out Do Now (2 min). Inform students they will be returning to the Do Now at the end of class and that they should hold onto it. =====


 * 1) ===== 3. Introduction to grammar/setting purpose (3 min) =====
 * 2) a. Inform students they will be focusing on grammar for the day, specifically comma use. Ask what the students know about commas already, specifically what commas do in a sentence. Record these responses on the board.


 * 1) ===== 4. Exemplar text/non-exemplar text (5 min) =====
 * 2) a. Hand out an example of a sentence that doesn’t use commas correctly and asks students if there is something wrong with the sentence. If students say yes, ask students what they think is wrong with the sentence (the sentence should be a run-on sentence, with little to no commas). The students’ responses are recorded on the board.
 * 3) b. Hand out an example of a sentence that does use commas correctly and asks the students if they notice anything wrong with the sentence. Give the students a graphic organizer to use to compare/contrast the first sentence with the second Review definitions of words in the graphic organizer if necessary (subject, verb, punctuation). As a class, students discuss the differences between the sentences and record their responses on a graphic organizer. (As an accommodation, the teacher records what the students say on the board so visual learners can process the information from the board and record it on their graphic organizers).


 * 1) ===== 5. Mini-lesson: independent and dependent clauses (10 min) =====
 * 2) a. Using the exemplar and non-exemplar texts from the previous activity, ask the students if they know where the independent clause is in the exemplar sentence. If students do not know what an independent clause is, provide the definition on the board and ask them again which sentence fits the criteria. If no one provides an answer, point it out and explain that an independent clause has a subject and a verb, marking the subject and the verb in the sentence. Students are instructed to copy this on their own papers.
 * 3) b. Ask if anyone knows what a dependent clause is, based on the definition of an independent clause. Record the definition on the board, and ask the students where the dependent clause is in the exemplar sentence. Instruct the students that a dependent clause needs to lean on an independent clause, while an independent clause can stand on its own. Ask the students what they notice is linking the independent clause with the dependent clause (a comma). Ask the students to look at the non-exemplar text and identify where the independent clauses are and where the dependent clauses are. Inform the students that if a dependent clause is not leaning on an independent clause through a comma, this sentence could be considered a fragment. If independent clauses are placed together without commas or connecting words, it is considered a run-on sentence. Definitions of “fragment” and “run-on sentence” are written on the board for students to copy in their notes (Students with LD or ED will be provided guided notes with fill-in the blank sections).
 * 4) c. Definition of fragment: “Fragments are incomplete sentences. Usually, fragments are pieces of sentences that have become disconnected from the main clause. One of the easiest ways to correct them is to remove the period between the fragment and the main clause. Other kinds of punctuation may be needed for the newly combined sentence.” (Purdue Owl, 1995).


 * 1) ===== 6. Guided Practice: Tweet Activity (5 min) =====
 * 2) a. Students are given a worksheet of celebrity tweets, and instructed to: 1. Identify the independent and the dependent clauses in the tweet


 * 1) ===== 7. Independent Practice: Tweet Activity (10 min) =====
 * 2) a. Students are instructed to complete the tweet worksheet on their own. This activity will be used to assess their understanding of run-ons and fragments. The general education teacher circulates and helps students while the special education teacher works with a small group of students with special needs.
 * 3) b. Go over worksheet in class.


 * 1) ===== 1. fragment =====
 * 2) ===== 2. Run-on =====
 * 3) ===== 3. Fragment =====
 * 4) ===== 4. Fragment =====
 * 5) ===== 5. Run-on =====
 * 6) ===== 6. Run-on =====
 * 7) ===== 7. Fragment =====
 * 8) ===== 8. Run-on =====
 * 9) ===== 9. Run-on =====
 * 10) ===== 10. Run-on =====


 * 1) ===== 8. Debrief and Homework (5 min) =====
 * 2) a. Stop the activity and ask students if they have any questions about fragments, run-ons or comma use. Ask students verbally what an independent clause and a dependent clause are, as well as what a run-on sentence and a fragment are. Inform students that their homework assignment is to take their Do Now assignment home and identify the independent and dependent clauses, identify any fragments or run-ons, and correct them. This will be written on the board. Tell students that their homework will be used at the beginning of class the next day.

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Reflection: Overall, it seemed that this lesson covered too much material for a 45 minute class period. Though a few students grasped independent and dependent clauses quickly, many had trouble understanding it and so I spent much of the class reinforcing those concepts. The students who moved onto run-ons and fragments seemed to have a sense of what they were and were able to identify them in a sentence, but they weren’t sure how to explain why something was a fragment or a run-on. They also had trouble correcting these types of sentences. =====

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If I were to teach this lesson again, I would split the lesson into two periods. The first period would cover just independent and dependent clauses, and the second period would cover fragments and run-ons. I would include another independent practice activity to reinforce students’ ability to identify independent and dependent clauses. =====